Today, the winner of the "One Million-Dollar Zazzle Innovation Challenge" has been announced. The contest was launched during the MCPC 2011 conference and saw an enormous participation with about 1,000 entrants submitting their proposal.
During the last days, a panel of judges picked the winner, which was presented during a nice ceremony at the Haas School of Business of the UC Berkeley today. At the left, a few impressions of the day:
- Henry Chesbrough opened the event with a very nice talk about the promise of mass customization;
- Jeff Beaver from Zazzle addressed the audience and introduced the finalists,
- Elizabeth Miller, Head of Creative at HASBRO, presented a great talk on the power of personalization and how a large company like Hasbro can benefit from a customization platform like Zazzle.
- And then the five finalists gave short presentations on their companies and idea -- really cool! Just check the videos below to get some ideas.
- Finally, Dean Richard Lyons of Haas announced the winner!
Five companies have been nominated. Here are their pitches why they should get the 1Mio Zazzle award:
Republic Bike
Everybody loves to ride a bike in the summer. But not everybody loves to ride the same bike. Why not design the bike of your dreams from the convenience of your couch and have it custom-built an shipped to your doorstep? Their pitch: Make bikes as the customers' canvas -- and allow then to really create a custom bike. --> WATCH THE VIDEO
Selve
Why do women own so many shoes? Maybe because every one has something special that they like about it. For everybody with limited storing space, Selve offers the opportunity to pack all these special details into one shoe, your shoe. Their pitch: We did ten years of homework and now have a great product space and manufactuing -- and ready for a huge audience. --> WATCH THE VIDEO
YouBar
Everybody is different. And every body is different. And if you are a sports enthusiast who wants to give his body exactly the nutrition it needs, YouBar now might have you covered. Their pitch: With YouBars, Zazzle could enter the large growth field of custom food. --> WATCH THE VIDEO
DODOcase
Do you sometimes wish your fancy iPad, useful as it is, would be a bit more...individual? DODO certainly does and gives you the tools to design your very own, handmade iPad case, that can (but does not have to) look like your favorite book. Their pitch: DODOcase would bring traditional craft to the Zazzle world of mass customization. --> WATCH THE VIDEO
Designscape
Few things can personalize a home better than individually designed and crafted pieces of art and assessories. With Designescape's concept including production with modern lasercutters, individually produced home decoration could become an affordable reality soon. Their pitch: Bring laser cutting technologies to the Zazzle platform to do many more amazing things. --> WATCH THE VIDEO
And the winner is ...
It was really difficult to select a winner, but in the end SELVE was selected as the recipient of the Zazzle Innovation Challenge 2012! Congratulations, and I am sure we soon will learn about the outcomes of this cooperation! (on the left, Selve founder and CEO Claudia Kieserling who joined by video from Germany)
Extra: Amongst the entries that did not make it into the finals, many presented really interesting, funny, creative and/or useful ideas. Honorable mention can especially be given to ...
- Unitedstyles. A plattform for consumer-designers to design fashion, buy their individual pieces and open virtual stores. (Video)
- Modify Industries, Inc. High-design co-creation of goods with a high grade of interchangable elements.
- Spek, personal eyewear. Eyeware, personalized in design, fit and shape, using modern 3D printing technologies (Video)
- Happy Toy Machine. Enables kids and the young at heart to create their own cool, cute, and crazy custom plush toys online. (Video)
- Easy DIY Nail (Yuan Lu) Individual fingernail design made easy (Video)
- Fabric on Demand. Affordable custom fabric printing - bring your pictures and designs on fabric (Video)
- Waggers Pet Products Inc. Give your pet the best you can with individualized pet food.
Fantastic news! Glad to see Selve won! Can't wait to start working on their shoes.
Carolyn McFann
Two Purring Cats Clothing & Gifts
http://www.zazzle.com/twopurringcats
Posted by: Carolyn McFann | March 24, 2012 at 09:12 PM